I could be wrong, but I really think that there are a number of topics floating in this tread.
First of all the fact that a Rep used poor judgment in announcing the contents of the winning “AB’ category. Being a relatively new competition cook, 2 years and still learning, I’ve got to believe that Ray is right. My feeling is that the Reps are the all important ‘Referee’. They are the ones making the tough judgment calls on the legality of a box. They are the unsung heroes that sit behind screens (ok, they do come out into the sunlight every now and then) and make sure that it is a level playing field for us cooks. They should not be the announcers of the awards. That is for the organizers, the Reps are the officials.
Next we have the question if the BOD should have even spent time listening to the issue, and if that answer is yes, if there needs to be an advisory sent out to all reps regarding the issue. To be honest, I’m surprised that there is not a committee headed up by a BOD member to deal with issues like this. I’m not saying that this committee should be all powerful but rather it should deal with the more mundane issues and bring to the BOD items of more substance. As for whether an advisory needed to be sent out, no, I don’t feel that we need anything that serious. Just a reminder of what a Reps job is (please see item one).
Next, we have the issue of photography in the judging tent. While I would love to get a complete set of photos of each winning box ever turned in (I’m just kidding, really, well kinda). I would also be really pissed if I had a presentation that was doing well and now everyone else now had a photo of it. I would also not be happy if pron of my boxes showed up on the KCBS site or in a news paper without my permission. I guess my feeling is that there should be NO photography in the judging tent, none at all. If the media want photos of turn-in boxes they should approach a team directly.
Finally, we have the question on whether or not the Reps should be reviewed, re-trained, and/or removed, basically, HR for Reps. To be honest, I don’t know what is being done now. My gut say’s yes, they should be reviewed again by the committee described above but where it goes from there, I really don’t know.
If I’m way out of line or misunderstood the issues, I’ll apologize now.